This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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Most Americans have never been to Mississippi. However, as the people who live there know, Mississippi is an awesome state.

But is it all roses? Definitely not. Just like any other state, Mississippi has its trouble spots. This article aims to determine, using science, the absolute worst small towns to live in the Magnolia State. Don’t shoot the messenger, this is all using data.

After analyzing more than 138 of Mississippi’s smallest cities, we came up with this list as the 10 worst small towns in Mississippi where you’d never want to live:

Bogue Chitto

Darling

Crosby

Arcola

Cruger

Benoit

Duncan

Farrell

Falcon

Maben

Of course, many of these cities would rank highly if they were in other states, since Mississippi has its stuff figured out.

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers, or scroll to the bottom to see how your town ranked.

How do you decide if a place is lousy or not?

In order to rank the worst small towns to live in Mississippi, we had to determine what criteria people like or dislike about a place. It isn’t a stretch to assume that people like low crime, solid education, things to do and a stable economy.

So we scraped the internet for those criteria, and it spit out the answer. Like magic.

How we crunched the numbers

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using FBI crime data, the Census’s 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is the criteria we used:

Population Density (The lower the worse)

Highest Unemployment Rates

Low housing costs (meaning there’s no demand)

Adjusted Median Income (Median income adjusted for the cost of living)

We looked at cities with populations between 100 and 1,000 people, of which, there were a lot – 138 to be exact.

Additional note: We get the crime numbers from the FBI, which gets its crime numbers from the cities themselves. Dropout numbers are based on the adult population, not just the current graduation rates of teenagers.

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1. Bogue Chitto

Population: 682 Median Income: $26,359Median Home Value: $55,000

2. Darling

Population: 284 Median Income: $25,682Median Home Value: $44,600

3. Crosby

Population: 408 Median Income: $20,313Median Home Value: $71,000

4. Arcola

Population: 357 Median Income: $15,662Median Home Value: $41,700

5. Cruger

Population: 376 Median Income: $17,604Median Home Value: $35,500

6. Benoit

Population: 460 Median Income: $22,813Median Home Value: $41,700

7. Duncan

Population: 385 Median Income: $28,854Median Home Value: $47,500

8. Farrell

Population: 376 Median Income: $15,804Median Home Value: $28,700

9. Falcon

Population: 142 Median Income: $35,625Median Home Value: $42,100

10. Maben

Population: 737 Median Income: $17,188Median Home Value: $47,900

There You Have It – The Worst Small Towns In Mississippi

If you’re analyzing teeny places in the Magnolia State with the worst economic situations, where there’s high crime and there’s not a lot to do, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious enough, here are the best small towns to live in Mississippi, according to science.